e-Key v3 - Cocculus
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Interactive keys to the identification of seed plants of southern Africa using keys based on plant morphology.

Menispermaceae - Cocculus DC.

Description :

  • Scandent shrubs or climbers, rarely prostrate or erect, sometimes fleshy
  • Leaves simple, entire or lobed, sometimes falling before flowering
  • Inflorescences : axillary cymes, rarely flowers solitary in female
  • Male flowers : sepals 6 or 9, in 2 or 3 whorls, outer ones smaller, often pilose; petals 6, entire or bifid, concave or involute around stamens; stamens 6 or 9, free; anthers with a transverse dehiscence
  • Female flowers similar to male; staminodes 6 or 0; carpels (3)4-6, ± ovoid; ovule solitary; style cylindrical, erect or recurved, or stigmas sessile and recurved
  • Drupe obovate or subspherical-compressed, with persistent style or stigma; endocarp bony, horseshoe-shaped, transversely ridged; condyle ± circular, septum usually perforated
  • Seed curved; endosperm present as a thin layer, not ruminate
  • x = 13 (aneuploids, polyploidy, B-chromosomes)

Nomenclature:

  • Cocculus DC.
    • Candolle: 515 (1817) name conserved
    • Candolle: 96 (1824)
    • Miers: 43 (1851)
    • Bentham: 36 (1862)
    • Miers: 249, t. 124 (1871)
    • Baillon: 33 (1872) in part
    • Prantl: 84 (1891)
    • Diels: 227 (1910)
    • Troupin: 10 (1956)
    • Troupin: 163 (1960)
    • Troupin: 221 (1962)
    • Friedrich-Holzhammer: 4 (1968)
    • Troupin & Gonçalves: 16 (1973)
    • Benvenuto: 35 (1974)
    • Kessler: 417 (1993)
    • Thulin: 26 (1993)

Distribution & Notes:

  • Global : Species ± 10, tropical to temperate North America, Africa, Socotra and Asia to Australia
  • Southern Africa : Species 1: Cocculus hirsutus (L.) Diels, Namibia, Botswana, Northern Province, Mpumalanga, Swaziland and KwaZulu-Natal

References:

  • BAILLON, H.E. 1872. Ménispermacées, Berbéridacées. Histoire des plantes 3. Hachette & Co., Paris
  • BENTHAM, G. 1862. Menispermaceae . In G. Bentham & J.D. Hooker, Genera plantarum 1. Lovell Reeve & Co., London
  • BENVENUTO, E. 1974. Adumbratio florae aethiopicae. 26. Menispermaceae . Webbia 29
  • CANDOLLE, A.-P. DE. 1817. Menispermeae . Regni vegetabilis systema naturale 1. Treuttel & Würtz, Paris
  • CANDOLLE, A.-P. DE. 1824. Menispermaceae . Prodromus 1. Treuttel & Würtz, Paris
  • DIELS, L. 1910. Menispermaceae . Das Pflanzenreich IV. 94 (Heft 46)
  • FRIEDRICH-HOLZHAMMER, M. 1968. Menispermaceae . Prodromus einer Flora von Südwestafrika 38
  • KESSLER, P.J.A. 1993. Menispermaceae . In K. Kubitzki, J.G. Rohwer & V. Bittrich, The families and genera of vascular plants - dicotyledons 2. Springer-Verlag, Berlin
  • MIERS, J. 1851. A few remarks on the Menispermaceae . Annals and Magazine of Natural History , Ser. 2, Vol. 7
  • MIERS, J. 1871. A complete monograph of the Menispermaceae . Contributions to Botany 3(1). Williams & Norgate, London
  • PRANTL, K. 1891. Menispermaceae . Die natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien 3,2
  • THULIN, M. 1993. Menispermaceae . Flora of Somalia 1
  • TROUPIN, G. 1956. Flora of tropical East Africa . Menispermaceae
  • TROUPIN, G. 1960. Menispermaceae . Flora zambesiaca 1
  • TROUPIN, G. 1962. Monographie des Menispermaceae africaines. Académie Royale des Sciences d'Outre-Mer, Classe des sciences naturelles et médicales mémoires 13
  • TROUPIN, G. & GONÇALVES, M.L. 1973. Menispermaceae . Flora de Moçambique 7